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In this video interview, Professor Thomas Powles, Director of London’s Barts Cancer Centre discusses the impact of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on cancer care in the United Kingdom. Dr Powles details how temporary protective measures set in place at Barts in the early months of the pandemic, such as temperature checks and limited visitors, have now become permanent fixtures of patients’ hospital visits. While the hospital did not see a huge backlog of cancer treatments, it did see a 30 percent reduction in new cancer diagnoses due in part to the fact that patients were not coming in for routine visits or surgeries. With this number now increasing, Dr Powles addresses the challenges that have arisen in determining the availability and frequency of COVID-19 testing, as well as how clinics will be reworked to maintain proper social distancing measures.
